Shabbat Services this Week are In-Person and Virtual
Friday, November 5, 1 Kislev 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Zach Mayer for a Virtual Kabbalat Shabbat Services.
Saturday, November 6, 2 Kislev 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Cantor Ellen Band for Shabbat morning prayer for our In-Person and Virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Service.
If you have a simcha, please share it with us and receive a special blessing from Rabbi Plumb during an upcoming Shabbat service. Sponsor a Kiddush by virtually inviting us to your home as you lead the community in KIddush and HaMotzi prayers. (we will provide challah and grape juice!) Please contect Rosalie Reszelbach, Janet Stein Calm or Toni Spitzer to arrange.
Please click here for the link to the new Conservative prayerbook, Siddur Lev Shalem: Shabbat Shaharit Siddur Lev Shalem The prayers will be the same as in our usual blue siddur, so feel free to use that instead if you wish.
Please click here for the link to the page numbers for Shabbat morning prayers in Sim Shalom (Blue) and in Lev Shalem Page Numbers for Shabbat Morning
Thursday Harry Chafetz Milton Goldberg Howard Alpert Gertrude Selib Goldie Bloom
Friday Gary Grau Edward Milder Leon Robert Kaplan Celia Shapiro
From Our Rabbi: A Teaching
This week, our parasha and Jewish history connect with each other. In Parashat Toldot we read about how Isaac and his family and followers are living among the Philistines and has become successful and well integrated into their culture. 'וַיִּגְדַּ֖ל הָאִ֑ישׁ וַיֵּ֤לֶךְ הָלוֹךְ֙ וְגָדֵ֔ל עַ֥ד כִּֽי־גָדַ֖ל מְאֹֽד׃ and the man grew richer and richer until he was very wealthy: But the Philistines became jealous, and they attacked the key sources of Israelite success- their water wells. They stopped them up, then forced Isaac's community to leave Philistine.
This week, on November 9, the Jewish world marks Keistallnacht, the night the Germans attacked our sources of success,our shops, synagogues and homes, and the expulsion and murder of Jews began in earnest.
This Shabbat my wonderful mother in law, Ruth Shire, will speak about her experience of Kristallnacht, via zoom from England. I invite others who lived through it to share their experiences as well. At services we will remember the victims of the Shoah.
At the same time, we will celebrate what has emerged since the Shoah. Our parasha again points the way. וַיָּ֨שׇׁב יִצְחָ֜ק וַיַּחְפֹּ֣ר ׀ אֶת־בְּאֵרֹ֣ת הַמַּ֗יִם אֲשֶׁ֤ר חָֽפְרוּ֙ בִּימֵי֙ אַבְרָהָ֣ם אָבִ֔יו Isaac dug anew the wells which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up.
Isaac did not give up, or surrender his heritage. He redug the wells, and opened new ones. He settled his family somewhere new and we became the House of Israel.
Our survivors did the same. Our people spread throughout the world and revitalized Jewish life after the Shoah.
When we look at Judaism today, especially after this past 2 years, we can see how vibrant Jewish life is. You can attend a different Jewish lecture, music event, spiritual experience, and class every day of the year if you liked. We have used technology to innovate and revitalize the Jewish mind, body and soul.
This Shabbat we will remember where we have been, and celebrate who we are now. I hope you will join us in person in our sacred space as we reconnect physically to our spiritual well, our synagogue and Torah scrolls.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
